


Maiden with Eyes of Blue

by dxmichelle



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Birthday Presents, Gen, Office visits, Seto Kaiba's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-07-29 07:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16259867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dxmichelle/pseuds/dxmichelle
Summary: Post-series. Pegasus visits Seto Kaiba on his 18th birthday, and a subject long overdue comes to the surface.





	1. Chapter 1

Everyone that worked within the main headquarters of the Kaiba Corporation, from the lab technicians to the department receptionists, knew that October was one of the most stressful months out of the year, and for multiple reasons.

The company began its historic transformation from weapons to gaming during this month, three years ago. Kaiba Corp’s fiscal year also ended on October 31, which meant all departments had deadlines whose managers were running in overdrive to meet. The calculator-crunchers had invoices and reports to reconcile and numbers to balance for the end-of-year meetings with the board of directors. Performance evaluations needed to be completed and budgets finalized for the start of the upcoming year.

For the development teams, final (double and triple) checks needed to be completed on any product, physical and virtual, that was slated to release during the busy holiday season. The popularity of virtual gaming had grown after new pods pre-installed with mini games were launched in the Domino City arcade, the first time any Kaiba Corp virtual game released outside of their theme parks. Industrial Illusions was slated to release a holiday set of classic cards with limited edition art, which meant that the duel disks needed updated to reflect the new designs. A patch update would be sent out to all disks out in the wild in the upcoming weeks, but the holograms themselves always required the CEO’s approval.

And everyone knew that Seto Kaiba was ridiculously hard to please.

So, naturally, the general assumption was that their boss’s mood – which only continued to worsen as the month marched on – was due to nothing more than workplace stress.

They were only partially right.

Seto Kaiba was irked about his birthday.

Unlike 99% of the general population, Seto Kaiba cared very little for the date of his birth. There were never parties or grand celebrations. He didn’t like nor want the fuss behind it. It was, after all, just another day. So while Mokuba was in school, he went to work, and his brother would make sure that before the cook left for the day, his favorite meal was set out for when he would leave the office and return home. Despite not caring much for desserts, a tiny cake was smuggled away either in Roland’s office or at home, because Mokuba insisted on it.

 _“It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your day_ ,” Mokuba once said, _“Your birthday isn’t official without cake, and you can put up with it one day out of the year!_ ”

Seto was certain it was just another excuse for his brother to eat cake outside of his own birthday in July, but he shrugged it off each year, had his token slice, and let his brother have the rest of it. But this year, Mokuba was away on a school trip out of town, so he would have to spend the day alone.

There were only a handful of people that knew his exact birthdate, and Seto was determined to keep it that way, for a number of reasons.

One, unlike his younger brother, he did not hoard “stuff”. The office displayed his various trophies and achievements earned over the years, and his study at home housed the number of personal gifts Mokuba had given him for his birthday or Christmas each year. Outside of books, and the room at home that contained his massive collection of Duel Monsters cards, he kept his spaces neat and minimal.

Two, Seto was quite aware of the number of fans that sent mail and gifts throughout the year, in the hopes of guessing his birthdate. There was a specific office on the third floor of the building that handled all of the love letters, fan mail, and offerings of Duel Monsters cards sent in over the last three years. Hardly any of it actually made it up to his desk. But he knew that if his birthday went public, the influx of fan-made messages would skyrocket, and honestly, his employees had better things to do than dig out the corporate mail from under all the gifts and declarations of fanatic love.

Three – and most importantly – it kept _certain_ visitors out of his hair. Certain visitors like the silver-haired bane of his existence that happened to be sitting across from his desk beaming like a child set loose in a candy store.

“I don’t know _how_ you managed to worm your way in here unannounced, but I’m not dealing with you today,” Seto snapped, “I don’t have to put up with you again for another two weeks to finalize the duel disk update and I’d like to cherish those fourteen days while I still can.”

“Now, Kaiba, I’m sure you’ll note that I _am_ on your fancy little calendar. I made arrangements with your rather kind secretary to book a piece of your afternoon on this most momentous occasion!”

“The only thing momentous about today will be when Roland throws you out.”

Pegasus placed a hand to his heart. “You wound me, my dear Kaiba! After all, we only turn eighteen once! It’s the official transition into adulthood!”

Seto glared at him. “Even _if_ the legal adult age in Japan were eighteen, _which it isn’t,_ it’s just a number, nothing more. And if all you’ve come here to do is harass me on my birthday, then you can leave.”

“Alright, wait, _wait_!” Pegasus’s eye was wide as he held up a hand just before Seto could hit the “KC” communicator pin on the lapel of his suit. “Jests aside, I did come here for a reason.”

Seto’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t move his hand away from his pin.

“It’s about something serious,” said Pegasus.

“ _Really_ ,” Seto said, “I didn’t think you knew what that word even meant.”

“Always lovely to know that your impeccable sense of humor has not waned,” said Pegasus, “I know we’ve had our share of differences to say the absolute _least_ , but _please_ , here me out.” 

Seto was sizing him up, and he let him, sitting patiently across the desk, and didn’t bother to hide the relieved exhale when Seto lowered his arm back down to his chair’s armrest.

“Thank you,” said Pegasus, as he reached into the inner pocket of his suit and retrieved a thin, fancily wrapped package. “This is something that’s been on mind for a while but – what’s wrong?”

Seto had both of his hands in iron grips on his chair, and it looked as if he was seriously debating rolling it away from the desk and calling for security. His eyes were locked onto the package, and his normally emotionless mask had crumbled slightly, revealing a slight look of…fear _?_

“What is _that_?”

“Hm?” Pegasus looked down. “Oh! Silly, this is for you! I trust that it’s still customary to give gifts for one’s birthday….”

“I don’t want it.”

Pegasus’s eyes widened. “Now, Kaiba-boy –”

Seto glared at him.

“I made this especially for you, honest, just for your big day! Unlike others, I so rarely have the opportunity to shower you with gifts!”

“Then you should understand my skepticism. Every _gift_ you’ve presented me has been nothing but trouble.”

Pegasus’s hand was raised, about to argue that point, and froze, scandalized. “Now, that _can’t_ be true!”

“Oh, no?” Seto crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair, but his body was completely tensed. “The _last_ time you gave me something, it had a lunatic inside that possessed me, nearly killed both myself and Yugi, and utterly destroyed my Duel Dome.”

“Now that’s hardly fair,” said Pegasus, “ _I_ didn’t create the Pyramid of Light card. The only card _I_ was gambling was _Blue Eyes Shining Dragon_. With that in mind, I’m hardly a guilty party for illicit gift giving.”

“Should I move on to Duelist Kingdom?” said Seto, unamused. “I might need _two hands_ to tally off everything that’s transpired during that one.”

Pegasus sighed, lowered his hand from where he was still keeping it frozen in midair, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“That’s why I’m here, actually.”

Seto raised an eyebrow.

“After that little fiasco with Dartz and Paradius, I’ve had quite some time to reflect,” said Pegasus, “And there has been something I have been putting off for far too long. I meant to do this earlier, but it seemed you went off on quite a magnificent adventure into Ancient Egypt before I had the chance.

Aaand there. The guarded mask was back up.

“I’m still in fairly frequent contact with Yugi-boy, I’ll have you know,” Pegasus explained. “He told me of the Pharaoh’s spirit returning to the Afterlife. I also know that you were there.”

Seto huffed. “Can’t there be _one_ time where those cursed relics aren’t brought up, even indirectly?”

“I’m afraid not, Kaiba-b – _Kaiba._ ” Pegasus hastily corrected himself as Seto gave him another harsh look. “Now that all of that insanity is behind us, I suppose now is no better time to get this off my chest. I know much has been asked rather unfairly of you these last few years, and I’m sorry to have to do it again, but…”

“Get to the point.”

“I merely ask that you give me a chance to talk, and let me tell my tale before you interrupt.”

Seto eyed him carefully before checking his watch. “The fact that security hasn’t thrown you off the roof should be indication enough that I agreed to listen. But you only have until your so-called ‘meeting’ penned into my calendar is over. That’s twenty minutes, which, to be honest, is nineteen too many. And, knowing how much you like to ramble, is not a lot of time, so you'd better get started, because once those twenty minutes are up, _you’re leaving_.”

Pegasus nodded. “Thank you.”

He took a deep breath. “…I wanted to apologize…for Duelist Kingdom.”

Pegasus watched Seto’s jaw clench, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. One hand balled into a fist along the armrest of his office chair, and the other started drumming the other arm impatiently.

“After Yugi-boy defeated me in his duel, he and his friends stumbled upon my private journals…and my motivations behind the entire tournament. But…you were not there with them at the time, and I feel that my lack of upfront honesty has cost us a valuable friendship.”

He waggled a finger as Seto opened his mouth, probably to shoot a barb or two back, if for no other reason than it being a habit every time they ended up in the same room. “Ah, ah. You promised to let me talk, remember?”

The jaw visibly tightened up again. The hand that wasn't drumming along the armrest took up a pen from the desk and began absentmindedly twirling it.

“It’s funny, time-wise, it was only a few years ago, but it seems like a lifetime. I was not much older than you are now. A bright, wondrous future was waiting for me, and the most amazing person to share it with.”

Pegasus smiled contently at the memory, and then sighed. “Unfortunately, like most good things, it was not meant to last. Not long after our wedding, my beautiful bride, Cecelia fell ill and passed. In the blink of an eye, my whole world was shattered.

“Afterwards, instead of continuing my work as an artist, I pledged myself to searching for any shred of hope of seeing her again. I began traveling the world, and explored many cultures with beliefs in life after death. As I’m sure you could guess, my search took me to Egypt, where I was met by the strangest man warning me to go home. He somehow knew intimate details of my life that I had never shared with anyone there, and I was intrigued by how much he seemed to know about me. So, naturally, I followed him into the strangest underground temple….”

Pegasus tilted his head and studied Seto’s expression thoughtfully. “I know there’s something _begging_ to come out, so go ahead.”

“Someone with clear common sense, however shady they may have been, tells you to quit an obviously impossible mission and go home, and your first instinct is to _follow them, alone_ , into some building?”

“Come now, if it was Mokuba, can you say with absolute certainty, that you wouldn’t have exhausted _all_ options in seeing him again?”

The pen in Seto's grip suddenly splintered apart, and Pegasus was suddenly glad that looks could not kill. 

“Mm, that’s what I thought. Anyway…it turned out that this mysterious stranger had ties to the Millennium Items. While I originally followed him to find out how he had known so much about my quest, I actually stumbled upon a dark ritual.

“When I was caught, the man and his partners put me to the Millennium Eye’s test. They told me, if I was blessed with the powers of the Eye, I would be granted my dearest wish, and I’m sure your brilliant mind could put together what that was…”

Seto didn't say anything, and his fingers kept up their taps.

“It was one of the most painful things I had ever experienced. But what the man said was true – I saw a vision of my dearest Cecelia! Of course, it only lasted for a few moments, but it was enough that I began to believe in the power of the strange artifact I wore.

“I started a great deal of research into my new mysterious eye. Surely, if there were others, maybe each one would allow me to see my darling bride again. So I continuously traveled to and from Egypt, and it was then I discovered the stories of Shadow Games, and glimpsed the stone carvings that would later become Duel Monsters.

“It was while I was looking into any of the other Millennium Items that you had taken control of your father’s company and unveiled prototypes of your impressive virtual technology. I thought for certain that the powers of the Millennium Items – one of them having already bestowed on me the ability to read minds – coupled with your holograms, could revive her.”

Pegasus sighed and shook his head sadly. “What I wouldn’t realize, until _much later_ , long after the Eye was taken from me, was that while it was indeed powerful, it was also riddled with dark magic. The Millennium Items _change_ people. Looking back on it now, it all seemed so sudden. As soon as I had a taste of all that power, it soon became a drug and a dependency.”

He wrung his hands together in his lap. “Had I known then, that following that stranger into that tomb would have led to so much misery, I never would have done it. Unfortunately, I cannot do anything about it now, except apologize for my failings. I can assure you that the younger, carefree me would not have even _considered_ any of the dark acts I committed in the name of love.”

Pegasus looked Seto in the eyes. “It’s been years since Duelist Kingdom. I know time hasn’t made anything easier, but something like this has been long overdue. I don’t expect this to repair our rather… _tense_ partnership. I just want you to understand why I did it.”

The finger drumming stopped.

“Is that all?”

Pegasus nodded. “That’s all – I’ve bared my soul.”

Seto’s eyes narrowed and he leaned forward, interlocking his fingers and clasping his hands on his desk. “Good. Now it’s _my turn_.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact! The legal age in Japan is currently 20!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the time of posting, AO3 believes it to be 10/26. Locally, it's still 10/25, and therefore this chapter isn't late. Happy Birthday, Seto Kaiba!

"What did you  _honestly_ expect to get out of this?" asked Seto.

Pegasus blinked. Seto's face was rather hard to read, but he was almost certain that his younger business partner was going to chew him out. He was faced with Seto's usual glare, but the question posed, rather than a verbal lashing, took him by surprise.

Upon seeing Pegasus's blank expression, Seto sighed. "Were you hoping that, like Yugi and his rather easy-to-please friends, an apology of questionable sincerity would be enough to just forgive and forget?"

Pegasus's jaw dropped. "No – that wasn't my intention at all! I wanted to explain myself –"

"Is that what that was? It sounded like you were making excuses to me."

"Kaiba –"

"Our companies have been partnered for  _three_  years. Even around Yugi's penchant for causing trouble wherever he goes, you had plenty of opportunity to say your apologies. But the only thing I got out of it was that after all this time, you  _finally_  felt guilty over pain that  _you_ caused, and instead of owning up to being the sadist that you know you are, you instead blamed  _magic_."

"I am  _not_ a sadist!"

Seto snorted. "Yes, you are, but go ahead and tell yourself otherwise. Denial is a common theme with you."

Pegasus scowled.

Seto dropped the broken remains of the pen unceremoniously onto his desk. "Perhaps I should – how did you call it –  _bare my soul_? Because I've got some long-held aggression if we're going to stay on the topic of Duelist Kingdom."

Pegasus sighed. "I probably deserve it."

Seto's eyes narrowed again. " _Every. Syllable_."

"Well, go ahead then," said Pegasus, gesturing for him to continue. "I assure you, I can handle it."

Again, Pegasus expected Seto to completely expel some bottled rage, but instead, he watched Seto's jaw tense up again, and one of his hands began drumming fingers against the desk. The glare he received was unnerving, as was the silence in the room. But despite having several years-worth of anger to let out, Seto Kaiba was remarkably quiet.

Finally, he watched Seto break eye contact with him, lean forward and type something into his laptop. Then the lid closed, he leaned back, and the silent glaring continued.

"Y-you're not giving me the silent treatment to round out those 20 minutes, are you?" Pegasus asked. It seemed like something he would do.

"My ' _rather kind secretary' –_ as you put it – is cancelling the disk development test slated for this afternoon. Something I was actually looking forward to, just so I can sit here.  _With you_."

Pegasus blinked. "To be fair Kaiba-b –er,  _Kaiba_ , I'm surprised you haven't done me in already."

The intensity of Seto's glare didn't waver. "I'm trying to determine where to start."

"…I see."

Seto's gaze hardened, just for a moment as the office door opened, but Pegasus couldn't see who it was from his seat. He tensed, just as Seto did when he took his gift from his pocket as Seto reached over and opened a drawer to his desk.

Immediately, his mind went to all of the unlikely worst possible scenarios. There were always rumors that the eldest Kaiba brother had been trained to fire a weapon. It wasn't that much of a stretch, considering what Kaiba Corp used to produce, and knowing exactly the kind of man Gozaburo Kaiba was. And as Roland dropped off a steaming mug to Seto's desk and then moved to stand to the side of the room, Pegasus suddenly began to regret his decision to visit until what came out of the drawer was not a weapon of any kind, but a file folder.

Seto dropped the folder onto the desk and fixed his icy stare upon Pegasus again. "Do you know what this is?"

Pegasus shook his head.

" _This_ is a list of all the crimes you committed in  _'the name of love'._ "

Pegasus swallowed nervously.

"…We'll start with collusion and corporate espionage. I don't know how long you schemed with the Big 5, but I'd guess it was sometime after my first loss to Yugi. To be fair, I don't blame them for jumping ship on me – they were always my stepfather's stooges, so dangling my death or whatever it was that you offered them would have been too good to pass up.

"You then tried to have me killed and imprisoned Mokuba, for what? Possession of my company? My technology that need I remind you was  _all over your island_   _already_? Just how many holographic dueling arenas were stationed at Duelist Kingdom? And I wasn't even counting the ridiculous setup you made inside your castle.

"Under  _your_ orders, no doubt, the Big 5 wrongfully reassigned and terminated several of my employees to be sure that all of your little plans went through without a hitch. You replaced  _Roland_  with Kemo to make it easier to kidnap my little brother."

Seto splayed his fingers along the desk and leaned forward. "And while we're on  _that_ subject, let me point out how horrendously  _unnecessary_  that was. I was already out of the picture thanks to Yugi defeating me in a duel. You had no need for Mokuba. You want to explain yourself?  _Explain that_."

Pegasus fidgeted in his seat.

" _I'm waiting_."

Pegasus closed his eye and sighed heavily. "The Big 5 alerted me to a bylaw started by your predecessor. Under the policies at the time, only a Kaiba could head the company. And with you off doing, well, whatever it was you were doing, that left only him."

"Mokuba was barely  _ten_. He may have been the Vice President, but it was a technicality of title. He had no legal sway over any corporate decisions. What were you afraid he would do – defeat Yugi in a duel? Take over Industrial Illusions?"

"It was assurance," said Pegasus quietly, "Under the assumption that the Big 5 had held up their end and..." his gaze strayed to Roland's cold stone face to Seto's matching artic stare. "Well… _offed_  you, I would hold onto Mokuba and groom him until it was time for him to take over Kaiba Corp, under  _my_ leadership."

He watched Seto's hands ball into fists again, and the jaw tensed for the hundredth time since he sat down. Frankly, he was surprised that Seto didn't lunge across the desk and try to throttle him considering how angry he was. Maybe that's why Roland was just off to the side of the room, to keep his boss from committing a murder. Unless he was there to  _clean up_ his murder. That thought didn't sit well with him either.

"Did you  _really_ think," Seto seethed, "That Mokuba would follow along with what you had planned if you actually managed to kill me? After  _chaining him up_ in your dungeon?"

"To be fair – he  _had_ escaped the rather nice room I gave him in the tower."

Pegasus cringed.  _That_  didn't come out quite right. Although, if he was being honest with himself, he couldn't think of anything to say that  _wouldn't_ calm the elder Kaiba.

"I take it the window bars were his favorite touch, since they failed to keep him in there."

Seto slumped back against his chair, but the rage in his face didn't waver. "I'm sure that nearly botched your plans right to hell, if he managed to kill himself trying to escape. After all, the Big 5 had already tried to assassinate me. If Mokuba had fallen to his death, you would have had  _nothing_."

Pegasus shook his head. "I…honestly didn't think he would get out."

"For someone who claimed to have the power to read minds or whatever magical nonsense you spouted at the time, you fell short on quite a bit in this grand plan of yours," said Seto, "Even  _if_ I had died at the summer house, even  _if_ Yugi had lost during your farce of a tournament, corporate bylaws would still be in place. Even if you were making decisions on Mokuba's behalf, his disappearance would raise quite a number of flags. Did you really think that  _no one_ at the company would wonder what was going on?"

"It's not like I was planning on changing it back to what it was," Pegasus countered, and he surprised himself at how calm he was, considering not two minutes ago he felt he was staring death in its face. "Did you really think I was going to convert it back to a weapons manufacturer?"

Seto rolled his eyes. "It's not as if the Big 5 shared any love for what  _I_ did to it."

"Well, it would have hurt Industrial Illusions as well, considering it was  _your_ holographic technology that made my game soar," said Pegasus.

Seto scowled. "Are you done?"

Pegasus leaned back and gestured for him to continue.

Seto went back to resting his arms on the rests of his chair, as though he was attempting to look calm, but it was far from effective. "You came here to alleviate your own guilt. Be honest. Did it work?" He added mockingly, "Do you feel all  _warm and fuzzy_ inside, like your inane little toons?"

Pegasus bit his lip. "Kaiba…"

" _Did. It. Work?"_

Pegasus sighed. "A bit. Though…" He eyed Seto curiously. "I…I expected you to be a bit more aggressive at me."

Seto gripped the chair arms a little tighter. "I've barely gotten  _started."_

Pegasus clasped his hands in his lap.

Seto gave a quick glance down at the folder on the desk. "I'm so  _glad_ that spilling your inner turmoil has made  _you_ feel better. It's not as though you have consequences to face for your actions, do you?"

Pegasus looked to the papers on the desk, and saw Roland stiffen in his peripheral.

"I'll have you know," Seto continued, lazily browsing through the papers, "That after the fiasco had ended, and the Big 5 up and disappeared, Roland had a great deal of legal paperwork prepared. After all, there was enough evidence here of the Big 5's conspiracy and my attempted murder to land all of you in prison for some time. That didn't even include kidnapping Mokuba. But you had cameras set up all over that island, so digging up something incriminating there wouldn't have been an issue at all.

"He spent  _weeks_ trying to convince me to move forward with it," said Seto, turning to regard his bodyguard briefly before leafing through the paperwork again and straightening it nicely in its folder. "But I didn't."

"Why didn't you?"

"You know  _perfectly well, why_!" Seto snapped, shooting to his feet. "What was I going to tell someone – that a  _cursed eyeball_ stole my brother's soul into a trading card? That the Big 5 conspired with you to relive out their glory days in positions of power? They had already fled after trying to  _trap me in a video game_. Or – if I knew then what you just told me – that it was all over  _reviving the dead?_ "

Pegasus blinked. "I…I didn't know about that. The video game, I mean…"

"Of course you didn't," Seto said, "Because you were presumably nursing the loss of that damn eyeball. The  _only_ form of justice you ever faced for all of the damage you caused, and I only wish I had the chance to rip it out of your head myself. But no – I was robbed of  _that_ too.

"You want me to  _understand_ your backward reasoning for what you've done, so  _you_  can get closure? I  _understand_ that you got off with nothing more than a proverbial slap on the wrist. How nice of Yugi and his gullible friends to forgive you out of a broken heart. But they weren't the only ones you wronged. Do you know what  _I_ got out of that mess?"

He didn't bother to wait for Pegasus to respond to him. "How about a traumatized little brother who had to live with the thought that his only family was  _dead_ over your quest for holographic technology you  _already had_. Who then had his hopes raised and then  _smashed_ when you ripped his soul out right in front of me and placed it in a trading card? Who suffered – and  _still_ suffers from everything that's happened to him? Merely because his last name is  _Kaiba_."

Seto sank back down in his seat and began drumming his fingers along the desk again. Pegasus noted once again that the jaw was locked, and he was boring his gaze of death back into his skull.

Pegasus wasn't quite sure what would be safe to say at this point, but he found Seto's silence much worse than his words. "…What about you?"

"What  _about_ me?" Seto snarled.

"I…the collusion, the attacks…."

"I  _knew_ the Big 5 would act out eventually. It was only a matter of time before they moved to undermine my leadership after what I did to secure the company. But you forget, I knew you  _before_  Duelist Kingdom. I've seen firsthand how manipulative you are. You were grinning like a child during that match against Bandit Keith in the Intercontinental Tournament. I expected underhand tactics from you. Why do you think I bothered to bring duel disk prototypes all the way to Duelist Kingdom in the first place? The technology was what you wanted, after all, and I practically  _handed_ it over on a silver platter."

"And  _your_ soul?"

Seto's eyes narrowed. "You already  _had_ Mokuba's. It was clear that I had one chance to save him, and  _blatant cheating_ aside, I failed. You think I stood on the edge of your castle during Yugi's duel for a  _cheap victory_?"

Pegasus closed his eye and shook his head.

" _I_ get to live with the fact that there is no closure for me or my brother. Unlike every other criminal that gets caught and justly punished, you can sit in your castle or your tower in San Francisco, sip your ridiculously expensive wine and watch your outdated cartoons all day without having to truly answer for the pain and misery you've dealt to a group of children. After all,  _you_ didn't do anything wrong, it was  _magic_."

Seto sighed heavily. He felt exhausted and finally looked away, noticing the mug of coffee for the first time since Roland brought it in. By now it was lukewarm at best, but he tossed it back as if it were a shot of hard liquor.

"Even if your ridiculous plan had actually worked – do you really think your wife would have been proud of you? Ruining at the very  _least_  three lives just to save hers?"

Pegasus looked up, surprised. Seto's voice wasn't spiteful anymore – now it just sounded  _tired._ And he couldn't blame him. He looked roughly as well as he sounded.

Now he very much regretted visiting on this particular day.

"I-I…no. But it was never a thought at the time. The desire to see her again was just  _so_ great, that after the first vision, it was like an addiction. I  _needed_ to see her again, and it didn't matter how I did it."

"Did it not  _ever_ occur to you…not even  _once,_ that your plan was ridiculously over-complicated, and you could have gotten what you wanted if you simply  _asked_?"

Now  _that_ caught him off guard. "W-what?"

Seto gestured around the room to the duel disk sitting idly on top of a filing cabinet. "You wanted to bring her back. You didn't  _need_ Millennium Items to do that. You could have created a likeness of her on a card – a  _token_  even, and used the holo projectors you already had on your island to see her whenever you wanted. Kaiba Corp has to enter all card data to work with the holographic technology anyway. If you had made a one-of-a-kind card, especially an unplayable one, for personal use, I probably wouldn't have cared."

Pegasus shook his head. "I had portraits of her all over the castle. A facsimile, even a 3D one, wouldn't have been the same as the real thing. I  _held_ her,  _spoke_ to her. I needed that feeling of  _being_ with her again."

"She was  _dead,_ Pegasus. You were fantasizing."

"Well, I know that  _now_ ," said Pegasus. "I wasn't kidding when I said that the darkness in the Millennium Items changes people. You saw what it did even to Yugi."

"Yugi's problem was that he got too used to playing hero and he therefore made stupid dueling decisions.  _Your_ problem was that you couldn't accept that death is a natural part of life, and resorted to criminal activity based solely on a pain-induced hallucination. The two are nothing alike."

After a moment, Pegasus nodded, conceding the point. "Perhaps not…."

Seto took a glance at his watch and then stared pointedly at Pegasus.

Pegasus raised a hand and stood. "I get it. I've well overstayed my welcome. I…" he trailed off and looked Seto apologetically in the eyes. "I'm sorry to have, well, ruined your birthday like this. I take full blame for not coming forward sooner, but to be fair, I was near certain that if I brought up Duelist Kingdom or the Millennium Items while we were all thick in a world-saving crisis, you probably would have tossed me from the roof."

Seto sighed again. "The Millennium Items are done and gone.  _Keep them that way_."

Pegasus nodded. "I understand. And I  _am_ sorry. I know after all that's happened these past few years, it seems hard to believe, but I did come here with genuine sincerity today."

Seto didn't look at him, instead leaned forward and opened the laptop again. "Your apology has been noted," he grumbled. "Acceptance is pending."

Pegasus chuckled lightly. That was probably the nicest remark he was going to get out of him. "I suppose that is fair." He turned to leave. "Thank you, Kaiba. For listening, and for putting me in my place."

Seto didn't look up from his screen, but Pegasus really didn't expect him to acknowledge having poured out his anger.

"Take the box with you."

Pegasus looked back, surprised. "It's your birthday present!"

Seto glared at him again. " _And I don't want it_. After making me sit here with you all afternoon, the least you can do is respect my decision and  _take it back_."

Pegasus sighed and picked it back up.

Seto stopped typing, and turned to Roland.

Roland gestured to the door. "If you would, sir."

The walk to the elevator and the following ride down to the lobby was awkwardly quiet. Pegasus turned the small box over in his hands as they descended the building.

"I'm surprised he didn't have me tossed out."

Roland turned his head slightly, but didn't say anything.

"I know expelling raw emotion isn't Kaiba-boy's way, but…I think this odd day may have benefited both of us."

"…I will not make assumptions for his benefit," said Roland, rather stiffly, "But if you wish to make amends for his eventual forgiveness, you can start by abandoning that ridiculous moniker. We both know he hates it."

"I do enjoy it so much," said Pegasus with fond sadness. To his surprise, Roland shot a hand out and jammed the "stop" button on the elevator. He watched as Kaiba's right hand removed his dark sunglasses and regarded him furiously with cold greenish-grey eyes.

"Mr. Pegasus, you are only nine years older than Mr. Kaiba. You were barely in your twenties when you founded Industrial Illusions. Despite your responsibilities to your work, you live a rather carefree lifestyle, and can act as childish as you wish and no one bats an eye.

"Mr. Kaiba moved into a position of power at fifteen and was responsible for caring for his brother and transforming the Kaiba Corporation. Everything that you have acquired and held onto with relative ease he had to fight to obtain  _and_ keep. If he acted the way you do, there would be a public cry for him to be removed from his position. He gave up dueling, the  _last_ remnants of his youth, to run his company. Mr. Kaiba became an adult far younger than anyone should have, and it was well before he staged a coup on his stepfather's company. It's time you, and everyone else for that matter, treated him like one."

And before Pegasus could even blink or come up with a response, the shades went back on and the elevator started back up, as if the tiny outburst had never even happened. Neither of them said anything until they were outside the building. Croquet opened the car door for him, but Pegasus stopped and turned around before getting inside.

He looked down at the box still in his hands before holding it out to Roland.

"Mr. Kaiba didn't want it."

"I know," said Pegasus. "Despite what he may have thought, I wasn't trying to bribe him or anything. I made that especially for him – there are no others like it in the world."

Roland looked down at the box. "What is it?"

Pegasus cracked a smile. "That would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" He sighed and held it out a little farther. "I know he refused it, but maybe he'll accept it from you. If he still doesn't want it, do what you will with it. But I won't take it back."

Roland sighed and tucked the box into his jacket pocket as Pegasus got into the car. He exchanged frigid looks with Croquet before turning back inside and heading towards the elevators.

Seto didn't even register that Roland had eventually walked back into the office, typing a message of some sort into his phone as he crossed the room. He was sitting ramrod straight in his seat and his fingers were brutally abusing the keys on his laptop to the point that if he hit them any harder, he'd go right through them to the circuit boards underneath.

Seto reached subconsciously for the coffee mug on the desk out of habit, despite having downed the entire thing earlier, but his hand was met with an empty corner of the desk. Oh – that's right. The mug met its fate against the wall not long after Pegasus vacated the room.

Roland took the seat Pegasus previously occupied and surveyed the damage. "We can have that art replaced, if you wish, sir. This is the fourth time this month you've needed the frame repaired."

He was surprised that it lasted this long, to be fair. That particular piece, an older skyline photograph of Domino City, was a remnant of the Gozaburo days, and every time his boss threw something breakable in a fit of rage, it was always directed there.

"It makes for target practice," Seto snapped. "I trust he left."

"He did."

" _Good_."

Roland studied his boss carefully. "You haven't eaten today, have you, sir?"

Seto didn't look up from his work. "Did Mokuba give you the job of mothering me in his absence?"

"Merely an observation."

"I'm not hungry."

That wasn't quite the answer to his question, so the odds are, he hadn't. Roland checked his watch. It was nearly four in the afternoon, so Mr. Kaiba probably hadn't touched a plate of food in almost an entire day. He would have to call in for a meal delivered from the restaurant down the street. It was their usual go-to when Mr. Kaiba worked late, and Mokuba wasn't here to drag his brother out of the building.

Roland's phone buzzed, and he checked the new message as Seto continued to ignore him.

"Ah, sir, there is a matter that requires your attention."

"I'm sure  _you_ are fully capable of dealing with whatever it is."

Roland scowled from behind his glasses. Without warning he reached over and pushed the laptop lid down, giving his employer just enough time to get his fingers out of the way before it slammed shut.

" _Sir_."

Seto leveled a glare usually reserved only for  _Pegasus_  onto his employee. "I am  _not_ in the mood, Roland."

Roland didn't waver. "I'm well aware. But this  _requires_ your attention."

Seto seethed quietly. " _What is it?_ "

"I need you to come with me."

Seto blinked. Roland was using his 'no-nonsense' voice, the only usually reserved for annoying members of the press or taking care of security matters. Annoyed, Seto rolled his eyes, but got up and followed Roland out of the office. "What is this about?"

Roland merely gestured to the elevator once the doors opened.

Seto crossed his arms and leaned against the wall as the elevator dropped four floors, and then followed Roland to an empty conference room.

An empty conference room with a small cake sitting in the middle of the table.

Seto glared at Roland. " _Really_?"

"I believe an intervention is necessary."

"A  _what_?"

"An intervention, sir, before you damage something a bit harder to replace than a piece of art."

Seto huffed but stepped closer to the table. It was a white frosted cake, with 'Happy Birthday' written in blue along the top. Oddly enough though…there was a slice already missing, but it wasn't anywhere in sight.

Seto raised an eyebrow, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. "Who got hungry?"

Roland didn't answer, but moved to the other end of the table where a laptop was sitting by the phone hookups. He fiddled with the technology for a moment, and then turned to the side table in the room and grabbed the remote to the large flatscreen television on the wall.

"Connection two, Mr. Kaiba. I'll leave you alone now."

Seto took the remote from him, unamused, as Roland closed the door behind him. Sighing, he turned it on, pushing the buttons with enough force to almost break them, until his brother was up on the screen from his own hotel room, grinning from ear to ear, with a single slice of cake in front of him.

"Happy Birthday, Seto!"

~~*~~

"If there's nothing else, sir, I'll be setting in for the night," said Roland, passing Seto on his way down the main staircase in the mansion. "Fuguta is on duty this evening."

Seto paused on his way up to his bedroom. "How did he know?"

"Sir?"

"Mokuba."

Roland raised his eyebrows. "Sir,  _you_ may not care for your birthday, but you know your brother will. Is it that hard to believe that he would want to celebrate despite being out of town?"

"You called him didn't you?"

"I did. But to be fair, if not at the office, I would have shuttled the cake here, and arranged Mokuba to call the house."

Seto shook his head, amused. "I should have known that you two would have conspired against me."

Roland cracked a slight smile. "Yes, sir, you should have. Good night."

Seto sighed tiredly and continued into his bedroom. He shrugged out of his jacket and was in the middle of tugging off his tie when he noticed a small box sitting on his bedside table. A box that looked  _very_ familiar to the one Pegasus tried to pawn off on him earlier that day.

But he took it with him when he left Kaiba Corp. So how did it get here, in his bedroom of all places?

Seto narrowed his eyes and turned towards his bedroom door.  _Roland_.

Somehow Pegasus must have convinced him to take it and give it to him. But it didn't matter, because he didn't want it. In the morning, he would have it shipped back to Industrial Illusions, and the last physical reminder of his trying day would be gone.

And if Pegasus could take a hint, he wouldn't try to gift it back to him later.

Seto scowled and finished changing for bed. He slid in between the bedsheets and reached over to turn off his bedside lamp when he stopped with his hand just above the switch.

The box sat innocently next to his phone, wrapped perfectly in silvery paper with a blue ribbon tied around it.

Seto stared at it. As much as he didn't want any gifts or charity from  _Pegasus_ of all people, the frustrating man had said this was especially for him. And he was rather pushy about giving it to him. It probably wouldn't hurt to at least  _see_ what it was before he sent it back. And at least this way he could harass Pegasus for his ridiculous choice in gifting.

Finally, after staring at it for who knows how long, he sighed heavily, propped himself up against the headboard, and started tugging the ribbon off of the box.

He lifted off the top to reveal a soft blue cloth folded around a Duel Monsters card nestled inside.

"Of course it's a card," he said. "What  _else_ would it be?"

He stared at the back of it. "It's probably a stupid  _Toon_." It would be just like Pegasus to gift him cards after he pretty much stopped dueling. Despite having moved on from the flashy coats and dramatic flair that he projected during his tournament days, his deck was always close by, as he used it primarily to test their new virtual software and duel disk upgrades.

Pegasus  _had_ to know that he owned almost every card out there. The room downstairs that housed his private card collection was quite impressive. So if Pegasus was going to gift him a very  _specific_ card, he must be expecting him to actually  _use_ it.

But risk the current perfected balance of his deck by doing so? It would have to be the  _Holy Grail_  of Duel Monsters cards. Especially now that Egyptian God Cards were gone. …Or were they? Yugi probably still had them, but his rival dueled just as much as he did these days. And even if Yugi chose to dust off his deck, he wouldn't gamble over them, so the idea was moot.

Sighing, he began to pick it up, and the moment his fingers began to lift it from its cozy package, he felt an odd ache in his heart. It barely lasted for more than a second, but it was enough to make him pause.

…What was that?

The weird magic from his dueling days was long gone…so surely that meant this card wasn't dangerous. But why did it make him feel… _sad_? He hadn't even turned it over to see what it was.

Seto clenched his jaw. If the damn thing was blank,  _someone_ was going to get chewed out first thing in the morning.

He hesitated for another second, and then flipped it around. It was  _not_ blank, and titled 'Maiden with Eyes of Blue'.

He had to hand it to Pegasus – he spared no expense on the rarity of the card. Aside from it being one-of-a-kind as he claimed, it had a beautiful sparkle to it that even his  _Blue Eyes White Dragons_  didn't have. It was the first thing to catch his eye, before even the art or statistics.

The next thing he noted was the attributes and description. It wasn't a powerful card by sheer numbers alone – it didn't even have any attack or defense points. But as he read the text, it became clear why this card was made just for him.

And  _then_  his eyes traveled upward.

The image made his heart skip a beat again, and he cradled the card delicately in his fingers. It was of a woman in a passive stance, dressed in a mostly plain brown dress. No – there was a sort of design along the sides of the woman's waist and hips, and he had to stare at it for a few moments to realize it was in the shape of  _his_   _dragons_. The woman's long silver hair was braided and splayed around her.

Her eyes were open wide in wonder, and her arms held out as if welcoming an embrace.

Seto sat, frozen, his eyes glued to the picture on the card. This was the girl from the past – it  _had_ to be. It  _couldn't_ be a coincidence. But…  _how_ did Pegasus know about her? He wasn't  _there_.

The girl wasn't carved on any stone tablet in Ishizu's museum, nor did she wield a Millennium Item back in the Pharaoh's memories. She was just a bystander, like the boring crowd of civilians that passed right through him as if he didn't exist.

But…she had spoken to him, and mistaken him for his ancient doppelganger. She was the only one of the faceless crowd to acknowledge him, like an assist character to a player in one of his virtual RPG games. So naturally, with nothing better to do and still disoriented with how he went from Egypt to  _Ancient Egypt_ in the span of two minutes, he followed her to the ruins of a palace…

…Just in time to see her die, sacrificing herself to save  _him_. In memories that weren't his own, from a life he never lived.

And yet – when he gazed at the card, he felt…warm.  _Whole_. Like a missing piece of his soul was put back together…

Seto quickly shook his head, finally breaking eye contact with the image's face. He was being ridiculous. These feelings had to be residual mind tricks after listening to Pegasus all afternoon.

The Millennium Items were done and laid to rest. It was time to keep the past in the past.

Seto sighed, placed the card back into the box, and set it down next to his phone. He'll examine the card in the lab during the rescheduled disk development test tomorrow. But if he didn't want to go through his day tomorrow chewing the heads off of every employee that crossed his path, he'd have to  _try_ to get some rest.

It was bad enough that Duelist Kingdom was still on the forefront of his mind. Sleep would not come easy, but maybe, if he was lucky he'd get more than two hours of it.

He clicked off the light, settled back into his pillows, and closed his eyes.

As expected, his mind started running rampant once he truly drifted off, and he shuddered in his sleep, locking the untouched pillow beside him in a death grip.

With his dreams corrupted, holding him down through horrors of the past, he couldn't see the faintest silhouette appear in the slivers of moonlight cast by the gap in his curtains. It took the form of a rather familiar maiden with long untamed hair that fanned about her slim frame as if caught up in an invisible breeze.

She raised a hand to his head, closed her eyes, and made the motions to brush his bangs from his eyes as she uttered a quiet prayer. Her hand passed right through him and he didn't stir, instead twitched and turned over, trapped in his nightmare. She remained frozen in her position, whispering in a tongue he couldn't dream to understand, until his breathing evened out and his fists relaxed, the night terrors banished from his mind.

The maiden straightened back up, and then gazed upon him fondly with shimmering blue eyes before disappearing into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maiden with Eyes of Blue:  
>  Light, 1-Star  
>  ATK: 0 DEF: 0  
>  Spellcaster/Tuner/Effect  
>  When a card or effect is activated that targets this card: You can Special Summon 1 “Blue Eyes White Dragon” from your hand, deck, or graveyard. When this card is targeted for an attack: You can negate the attack, and if you do, change the battle position of this card, then you can Special Summon 1 “Blue Eyes White Dragon” from your hand, deck, or graveyard. You can only use 1 “Maiden with Eyes of Blue” effect per turn, and only once that turn.


End file.
